Event organisers Tandem Events have today announced that Lisa Opie, Managing Director at Ubisoft Reflections and Ubisoft Leamington, is the latest keynote speaker for Develop:Brighton 2022.

Previously Managing Director of BBC Studios, Lisa’s Develop:Brighton 2022 keynote - titled: Building a Creative Culture, Together - will reflect on her time so far at Ubisoft and the importance of building an inclusive studio culture where every perspective is valued.

The session will include practical tips around:

• Creating a culture of belonging
• Building an award-winning wellbeing initiative
• Empowering teams to drive their own initiatives
• Revamping recruitment to appeal to a broad talent pool
• Increasing transparency in studio leadership

Ubisoft Reflections (based in Newcastle) and Ubisoft Leamington (Leamington Spa) combine over 35 years of award-winning, game-making experience and heritage, under their collective belts, from Driver to The Division, Grow Home to Ghost Recon, and Atomega to Assassin’s Creed.

“I am thrilled to be delivering a keynote at this year’s Develop:Brighton,” said Lisa. “I’ll be talking about my first year as Managing Director of Ubisoft's two HD studios in the UK, sharing some of the things I've learnt, highlighting some of the initiatives we’ve put in place to make sure our studios are as inclusive and creative as they can be, and reflecting on some of the things I think we can learn from other creative industries.

“I hope people will take away practical and actionable tips alongside some fresh ideas.”

Lisa will be joined at this year’s Develop:Brighton by fellow headline keynote speakers including the creative leads from Arkane Lyon, who led by Studio Director and Co-Creative Director Dinga Bakaba will be discussing the development of award-winning DEATHLOOOP.

In addition, more than 40 speakers have been announced so far across eight conference tracks, including newly announced sessions from Google, Mediatonic and TT Games, as well as from games industry icon Rami Ismail.

You can view all newly announced Develop:Brighton 2022 sessions below. To see all the currently announced speakers, head to our website.

• Developing Technical Skills to Increase Your Creativity (Art)
  Ruthie Nielsen, TT Games
• The Future of Fashion in Games (Art)
  Cait Goodale, DREST
• From Concept to Launch: A Data-driven Approach to Success (Business)
  Tyler Long, Newzoo
• Pulling Together a Business Case (Business)
  Rami Ismail, Indie Developer
• Across the Board on Apple Arcade: Putting DOTS Through its Paces (Coding)
  Matthew Rubin, AlphaBlit
• How We Brought a Large C++ AI Codebase to C# and Unity (Coding)
  Fabio Anderegg, Kythera AI
• AI Supported Tools for Game Development (Coding)
  Gorm Lai, Goldsmiths
• Is Your Code Working For You (Coding)
  Nikky Armstrong, Silver Rain Games
• Designing "DEATHLOOP"s First Hours at the Eleventh Hour (Design)
  Dana Nightingale, Arkane Lyon 
• Design Sensibilities for a Collaborative Culture (Design)
  Jamie Smith, Sumo Digital
• Running Featured Cross-publisher Events on Steam (Discoverability)
  Gary Burchell, Fireblade Software
• Creative Alchemy - Transmuting Your Game's Vision into Marketing Gold (Discoverability)
  Dessil Basmadjian, Focus Entertainment
• Forging Meaningful Connections With Audiences Through Marketing (Discoverability)
  Justine Colla, Atomhawk
• Downward Spiral or Mega Viral: 10 Lessons From a Year on TikTok (Discoverability)
  Grace Curtis, Future Friends Games
• Why Deep Community-Driven Engagement is the Key to Turning Your Fans into Your Advocates (IBC)
  Brendan Malcom, Games By Malcs
• Launching a Sequel on Mobile Games (Mobile)
  Fernando Pernica, Google        
• ADHD City - Weird Things That Help for the Creative (but noisy) Brain (Roundtables)
  Anna Hollinrake, Mediatonic
• Exploring Ways to Create and Foster Positive Mental Health Awareness in Your Workplace (Roundtables)
  Rosie Taylor, Safe In Our World 

Develop:Brighton 2022 takes place at the Hilton Brighton Metropole from Tuesday 12 to Thursday 14 July 2022. A range of passes for the conference and expo are now on sale, available at 30% discount with our Super Early Bird Rate until Wednesday 6 April.

The Develop:Brighton expo will run from Wednesday 13 July, including the returning Indie Showcase competition. The Develop:Star Awards also take place on that Wednesday and will celebrate the best and brightest of the game developer community.

For the latest on speaker announcements, the Develop:Star Awards, and everything Develop:Brighton visit: www.developconference.com and follow @DevelopConf on Twitter.

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About Develop:Brighton conference & expo

Develop:Brighton brings together the entire UK game dev industry to learn from each other, share ideas and experiences, network, and do business in a friendly and inclusive environment. The event also offers high quality conference sessions - from the industries brightest minds and talents - with practical takeaways that allow delegates to “skill-up” and be inspired to make better games.

With a programme shaped to reflect attendees’ feedback and hot topics for game makers in 2022 (monetisation, the Metaverse, ethical working practices, environment and sustainability, etc.) the Expo brings together some of the most innovative companies from every sector of games  development. Guests can also keep up-to date with the latest dev tools/tech and get hands on with all the games on display.

Develop:Brighton offers three days of inspiration, fulfilment, and fun by England’s south coast.

About The Develop:Star Awards

Taking place alongside the conference, the new Develop:Star Awards recognise the very best of the game development community. The achievements of developers and success of great games and creativity will be celebrated across 19 categories, including one ultimate ‘Develop Star’ honouring an extraordinary game developer for outstanding achievement and contribution to the industry.

Twitter: @developconf

LinkedIn: Develop:Brighton

Instagram: developbrighton